Caro Pirri, “The Body in the Garden: Colonial Family Plots in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy” 
Caro Pirri is an assistant professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. They work at the intersection of settler colonial studies and English theater history. Their scholarship has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Their first book, Colonial Failure and Theatrical Form in Early Modern England: Stages of Unsettlement is forthcoming through Oxford University Press this November.

Kristen Gragg, “Amongst the Fruits of the Flesh: Reading Witchcraft Literature as Folk Horror" 
Kristen Gragg is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in English Literature. Her primary research interests include magic, witchcraft, and the occult; modern and early modern genealogies of horror; rural psychogeographies, and exploring how horror can empower (rather than simply monsterize) the “Other.” In her spare time, Kristen enjoys playing asymmetrical horror games and designing themed tarot cards.   

Bring your lunch and we’ll provide coffee and cookies. Precirculated papers are available on Google drive.